Semi-weekly south Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1883-1889, 1887-05-17

Ustane, who did not seem inclined TO take
the hints gave her that we liked privacy.
Before we had gone five PAGES II struck me
that the cave that we were entering wnsnone
Of natures handiwork, but, on the contrary,
had been followed by the hand of man. SO
far as we could judge, it appeared TO be about
100 feet in length by 80 wide, and very lofty,
resembling cathedral aisle more than any
thing else. From this main aisle opened
passages Mt n distance of every twelve or
fifteen feet, leading, l suppose, TO smaller
chambers. About fifty feet from the entrance
of the cave, just where tho light began to get
dim, a fro WIS burning, and threw huge
shadows upon the gloomy walls around.
Here Billali halted, and asked us 10 he seated,
saying that they would bring us food, and ac
oOrdingly we squatted ourselves down upon
rugs of skins which wcro spread for us, and
waited Presently tho food, consisting OF
goats flesh boiled, fresh milk in nm earthen-
WIRE pot, and boiled cobs of Indian corn, was
brought by young girls. We were almost
starving, and | do not think that ever in
my life before eat with such satisfaction. In-
deed, before we had finished, we literally eat
up everything that was set before us.
When we had done, our saturnine host, Bill
lali, who had been watching us in perfect 81
lence, rose and addressed us. He said that
it was wonderful thing that had happened.
No man had ever known or heard of white
strangers arriving in the country of the Peo-
pie of the Rocks. Sometimes, very rarely,
black men had come here, and from them
they had heard OF the existence of men much
whittier than themselves, WEo sailed on tho sea
In ships, but for the arrival Of such there was
no precedent We had, however, been seen
dragging the boat up the canal, and he. told
us frankly that he had once given orders for
our destruction, seeing that it was unlawful
for any stranger TO enter here, when a mes
sage had come from She-who-must-be'
obeyed, saying that our lives were To 10
spared, and that we were to be brought
hither.
"Pardon me, my father" 1 interrupted at
this point; "but if, as l understand, She-who-
must-be-obeye1 lives yet further off, how
could she have known of our npproachg'
Billali turned, and seeing that we wero
alone-for the young lady, Uslane, had with
drawn when he began to speak-said, with n
curious little laughi
"Are there none in your land who can sec
without eyes and hear without earsi Ask no
questions; she knew"
/ shrugged my shoulders at this, and bo
proceeded To say that no further instructions
had been received on the subject Of our dis
posal, and this being so. he was about to start
70 interview She-whd-must-be-obey gem
orally spoken of, for the sake of brevity, as
"Hiya," or She simply, who no gave us TO
understand was the queen of the Amahagger,
and learn her wishes.
I bs,t. 1,o 10, 1ao
away, and he said that by travelling hard ho
might be back on the fifth day, but there
were many miles of marsh to cross before he
came to where She was. He then said TINT
every Arrangement would be made for our
comfort during his absence, and that, as ho
personally had taken n fancy to us, he sin
cerely trusted that the answer he should
bring from She would be one favorable to
the continuation vi oUf existence, but - tte
same time he did not wish TO conceal from us
that lie thought this doubtful, as every
stranger who had ever come into the country
during his grandmother's life, his mothers
life and his own life had been put TO death
without mercy, and in way that he would
not harrow their feelings by describing; and
this had been done by the order of She her.
self-at least he supposed it was by her order.
At any rate, she never interfered to save
them.
HWhy," said, "but how can that bot You
are an old man, and the time you talk Of
must reach back three mems lives. How,
therefore, could She have ordered the death
of anybody at tho beginning of the life of
your grandmother, seeing That she herself
would not have been bornr
Again he smiled-that same faint, peculiar
smile-and with deep bow departed, without
making any answer; nor did we see him again
for five days.
When he had gone we discussed the situa-
ton, which filled mo with alarm. did not
ut all like the accounts of this mysterious
queen. She-who-must-be-obeyed or, moro
shortly, She, who apparently ordered tho
execution of any unfortunate stranger in Q
fashion so unmerciful. Leo, too, was de-
pressed about 1t, but proceeded to console
himself by triumphantly pointing out that
this She was undoubtedly the person referred
to in the writing ON the potsherd and in his
fathers letter. in proof of which he advanced
Billali's illusions TO her age and power. |
was by this time so overwhelmed with tho
whole course of events that l had not even
got the heart left to dispute proposition so
L
go out and get bath, of which we stood
sadly In need.
Accordingly, having indicated our wish to
middle aged individual of an unusually
saturnine cast OF countenance, even among
the saturnine people who appeared to be de-
puted to look after us now that the father of
the hamlet had departed, we started in body
having first lighted our pipes Outside the
cave we found quite crowd of people, evil
IDENTIFY watching for our appearance, but
when they saw US come out smoking they
vanished this way and that, calling out that
we were great magicians Indeed, nothing
about us created so great sensation as our
tobacco smoke-not even our fire arms. After
this we succeeded in reaching q stream and
taking our bath in peace, though some of the
women, not excepting Ustane, showed de
cided inclination to follow us even there.
By the time we had finished this most re-
freshing bath the sun was setting; indeed,
when we got back TO the big cave it had al
ready set The cave itself was full of people
gathered around tres-for several more had
now been lighted-and eating their evening
meal by the lurid light and by that of various
lamps which were set about or hung up on
the walls. These lamps were Of a rude man
ufacture of baked earthenware, and Of all
shapes, some of them graceful enough. The
larger ones were formed Of big, red earthen-
ware pots, filled with clarified melted fat,
and having a reed wick stuck through q
wooden disk which filled the top of the pot,
and this sort of lamp required tho most con-
slant attention to prevent its going out when
ever the wick burned down, as there were no
means of turning it up. The smaller hand
lamps, however, which were also made of
baked clay, had wick manufactured from
the pith Of a palm tree, or sometimes from
the stem of a very handsome variety of fern.
This wick came up through round hole at
the end of the lamp, to which n sharp piece Of
hard wood was attached to pierce md draw
it up with whenever it showed signs of burn
ing low.
For awhile we sat down and watched this
grim people eating their evening meal in 81.
lence as grim as themselves, till ut length,
getting tired of contemplating them and the
huge moving shadows on the rocky walls,
suggested to our new keeper that we should
like to go to bed.
Without word he rose, and taking mo po-
litely by tho hand, advanced with lamp to
one of the small passages that / had noticed
opening out of the central cave This wc fol-
lowed for about five paces when IL Suddenly